Second Opinions?

[SnsSeeker13]

So now that the game has been out for about a month, who here has changed their opinion of the new direction this game takes the series in? This goes both for people who originally liked the concept, but aren't as happy now, and for people who were dissaproving of the new style at first, but now like this gameplay.

Personally, I was anxious at first, partly because of how long it's been since the last game, but I've gotten kind of bored, and now I'm wishing we had gotten traditional platforming instead.

[BanjoForever]

i havent touched my xbox for the past 3 weeks now, literally....let that speak for itself

[B-Kpianist]

Still playing it (again), still loving it

[Glaber]

Still playing it, still wishing they stuck with classic platfroming, and still thinking up way to show that I'm not all to happy with how vehicles dominated the game play and practly removed the limits. Also I know they said that there was suppose to be vehicle platfroming, but Jak 3 had more vehicle platfroming than B-KN&B will ever have.

[xxjoesusxx]

Played it, finished it, went on with gears of war 2, and am now coming back to it.

I absolutely love it, my opinion has not changed, it's a fantastic game, wholly original, and a perfect example of the types of risks game developers SHOULD be making.

[Adam]

I beat it and now I play it when I feel like relieving some stress from a Tales of Vesparia boss. (which is very often) I liked the game, now I still like the game.

[DeLMrcs]

Started a new file about a week ago, I just love this game.

[Keegan]

Still building crap

[Cobelcog]

Still love it.

[Whyme123]

I'm in the process of making a video guide...

[Doorstop]

Building bosses and such. It's addictive.

Still not Banjo enough for me though.

[wagsthedog]

i havent been able to play it for a while, but when i get the chance, i am looking forward to it. i think its a fun game. i miss old school banjo, but im accepting that we didn't get that and having fun with what we got.

[Pies]

I still love the vehicle building (was not pleased when i reached the limit for the first time ), sure its not classic banjo, but i still love it.

[K.g chest]

Still love it

[Princess J]

I don't have much time to play video games anymore. When I do, I play Nuts & Bolts. I've had it since a few days after its release and have loved it the whole time. I enjoyed it all the way through the game, and now that I'm finished, I've been messing around, just building stuff and having tons of fun being creative. I know the potential for vehicle-building will bring me back again and again, even as much time passes, whenever I get a fun new idea.

I can't say it's a game I'll want to start over again and again, like BK and BT were... there's less of a point, since I can just go play the old challenges any time I want, and I really don't want to go through starting from scratch and getting everything again. But as a sandbox, build-whatever-you-want toy, it's highly fun and addictive to me. I'm certainly not bored; quite the contrary, I always feel like there's tons of stuff to do and more things I'd like to try and build than I have time for.

However, that's not to say it couldn't be better. Now, Rare tried something totally new, so I'd only expect it to be flawed the first time around.

To best explain it, I'll say that I find this to be a very enjoyable game, and it feels like Banjo-Kazooie- it's undeniably that self-aware, sarcastic, unique, cartoony world of Jiggies and Jinjos- but it doesn't feel like a Banjo-Kazooie game. I mean, of course it doesn't. I knew it wouldn't ever since they announced the new concept. Duh. But- it didn't really hit me until I was actually halfway through it, and to be honest it was painful to swallow. Not to fault NB; it seems wrong to fault a totally unique game which I highly enjoy for the totally different things which it is not, but it's just- there's something I've been subconsciously craving for years, and I had to finally realize that this wasn't it. Oh.

What I've really been wanting for all these years (gameplay wise, I don't mean just being absorbed in that world which is so distinctly Banjo-Kazooie, and seeing those characters again, because NB satisfies me there), what I've really been wanting were rich new lands to explore, those cramped spaces to find my way around in as well as vast worlds in which I'd have to do a lot of footwork. Because that was what BK and BT did uniquely well, beautifully well. Something that would make me feel like when I first played BT, when I entered those worlds which were alive and breathing, not false and fabricated- the land of the Mayans or the dinosaurs, or the magical island of volcano and glacier. The feeling I got from exploring those places was extremely powerful to me as a younger girl. And I've caught glimpses of that in NB, and they're beautiful, but painful because they're so brief.

I loved the characters and the humor and the music from the first games, and that stuff is back and as wonderful as ever. To be honest, I think NB is the funniest yet. And the music is of a superb quality (though it's a pity there aren't more original tunes, much as I love hearing the old stuff remixed). And the characters, we get to see their personalities reinforced like never before because we see them so often. As far as this last point, it's a trade-off... I do enjoy seeing the characters often, but at the same time I think of how many awesome characters made up the first two games (and there are A FRICKIN' LOT- you try drawing them all!), and there's such a relative few in NB; and I really miss all those diverse faces and crazy new characters. One of my greatest joys in exploring the levels of the first two games, as I remember, was never knowing what kind of character I'd run into next... whereas in NB it's just like "Oh, guess I'll be seeing Bottles and Mumbo and TT in this one." I like Piddles and TT a lot, and LOG is intriguing- Pikelet can go jump in a lake- but is that really all the newbies we have, honestly? Or am I forgetting someone...? When I think of all the new characters BT gave us... And some of them were major, like King Jingaling, or Humba, but there were countless minor ones too. In NB, the "minor character" has almost failed to exist. If they're minor, they're so minor they're nameless.

So, while I love NB, those are the things I really expected from a Banjo game and I really miss: exploration and the huge pantheon of zany characters. But I wonder if the building concept and the traditional Banjo games are really satisfactorily reconciliable at all; I think it would be better to either leave the vehicles as a fun one-time thing, or- if they make a vehicle sequel, to turn it into a spinoff and perhaps have it feature more prominently not Banjo and Kazooie, but either a new character or some Diddy Kong Racing character they could drag up and tie into LOG's schemes- and return B&K to their roots for their own next game. This latter I would actually prefer, as I think Rare has tons of potential to make a more satisfactory vehicle game- now that they've got the premise down, they can concentrate on cooking up more creative challenges and fine-tuning the whole "vehicle platforming" concept. But as much as I do love NB, I am still waiting for the game which inspires within me the same feelings of discovery and mystery that BK and BT did. NB tides me over until... whatever comes next.

So, for me... NB is like licking the icing off the cake, and GOSH DANG IS IT DELICIOUS, and just what you wanted. But then when you get to the cake itself, you realize it's a different flavor than what you were expecting. Like some totally crazy new flavor that no one would expect to make a cake out of. And it's really not bad- in fact, it's pretty great, even if it does strike your tastebuds oddly now and then because the baker took some risks and added some weird new ingredients. And you really do love it. But then when you're done with the cake, you think, "Wait... but all I really wanted was vanilla cake." And then you're sad, because you yearn after that simple but sublime satisfaction of vanilla, but you can't have it. It's all gone. You can almost imagine its flavor on your tastebuds, but it's only a dream.

I'd like to have my new cake, maybe with some different icing, but have my old vanilla back too.